


Him & I

by Lirinsy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bottom Eren Yeager, Brief mention of original Levi squad, Canon, Cute Eren Yeager, Eren Yeager Has Heterochromia Iridum, Eren Yeager is a ball of sunshine, Eventual Levi/Eren Yeager, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Swears, M/M, Mikasa Ackerman & Levi Are Related, New Special Operations Squad | New Squad Levi, Pining, Possible Spoilers, Protective Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Romance, Special Operations Squad/Levi squad, Titan Eren Yeager, Top Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), long-haired Eren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:55:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27080779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirinsy/pseuds/Lirinsy
Summary: Finding out that the titans he had been ruthlessly slaying, had once been innocent humans themselves made him uncomfortable. But it had been necessary.To save the lives of his comrades.Levi could cope with it. He had long since cut out any emotions that made him vulnerable on the battlefield.Or so he had thought until a stubborn, bright-eyed brat had stormed into his life and drilled his way into Levi’s heart without knowing it himself.Levi had fallen hard.
Relationships: Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 2
Kudos: 86





	Him & I

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place a little bit after season 3. This chapter is about Levi reminiscing what happened throughout the years, but the next chapter the timeline will change to the present.

They were at war, as always. But this time with their own kin. It was no longer humanity against the Titans. 

They were far worse than the vile man-eating monsters Levi had spent most of his life taking down.

In hindsight, it had been them who had a hand behind the titans outside the walls. The titans who had taken down wall Maria.

To dedicate his life to eradicating the monsters in vengeance for the death of his friends and comrades, for the survival of humanity only to find out at the end that the true enemies were the so called humanity he had been trying to save, had left a bad taste in Levi’s mouth.

Finding out that the titans he had been ruthlessly slaying, had once been innocent humans themselves made him uncomfortable. But it had been necessary.  
To save the lives of his comrades.

Levi could cope with it. He had long since cut out any emotions that made him vulnerable on the battlefield.

Or so he had thought until a stubborn, bright-eyed brat had stormed into his life and drilled his way into Levi’s heart without knowing it himself. 

_Levi had fallen hard._

Eren was the only exception.

——————

Eren Jaeger was beautiful. 

With his bright mismatched eyes; one a breathtaking mixture of green and blue, similar to the hue of the ocean they had recently visited outside the walls and the other, the color of bright melted gold resembling the sun.

Eren with his bright eyes, dark-chocolate locks, sun-kissed skin and too fucking long legs reminded Levi of the summer.

He couldn’t bring himself to regret meeting Eren.

He remembered the first day he had met Eren. The day the outer gates of trost fell.

The news of a titan shifter had spread throughout the military. A cadet of the 104th training corps, Eren Jaeger had turned into a titan and helped seal the wall.

They had detained him and locked him up not long after. He was seen as a threat.

Levi along with Erwin met him at the cell below the courtroom, where he awaited his trial. He had been curious about the brat who had the ability to transform into a 15 meter Beast .

Eren had looked nothing like the monster he was accused of. In lieu, his huge doe eyes conveyed emotions of fear, apprehension and confusion as they met Levi’s own silvery ones, though Levi could sympathize with Eren, having been eaten by a titan one moment, and waking up chained in a cell the other.

The next time Levi had met Eren Jaeger, it had been at the court trial deciding whether  
he lived or not.

The military police had been hell bent on the persecution of the titan shifter.  
But Commander Erwin Smith himself held on a fairly convincing argument.

Eren could assist in the expeditions outside the walls.  
He had the potential to be humanity’s trump card.  
Their hope. 

But of course, Eren with his teenage hotheadedness had been riled up by Nile Dok’s bait in front of Zackly.

Levi had to get things back in favor of the Survey corps. And the only way to do so was to prove everyone in the room his title as the humanity’s strongest.

So he had beat the shit out of Eren until his face was unrecognizable.  
Until he had bled and was on the brink of unconsciousness.  
Had shown Zackly that if there’s anyone who could control Eren and get rid of him the moment he stepped out of line, it was Levi.

From his peripheral, Levi could sense the murderous intent coming from Eren’s adopted sister Mikasa, as she was held back by Armin Arlert from trying to punch his face in.

Things had ended up for the better with Zackly handing Eren over to the Survey Corps with Levi as his guardian. 

Although Eren’s bruises healed up fairly quickly (with a regrown tooth) due to his titan healing abilities, Eren seemed to be traumatized after Levi had beaten him up.

It was made obvious by Eren flinching and tensing up whenever Levi was within his vicinity - which was almost all the time.

It had gone to the point where Levi was almost feeling bad for beating the kid up. 

Levi had to confront Eren.  
It wasn’t going to workout too well for the team in the future with Eren being on Levi’s squad and under Levi’s command if things had continued that way.

Levi had asked Eren if he had hated him, which he wouldn’t have blamed the kid if he did.  
Eren had replied with a straight posture and a stiff fist to his chest that he had understood why Levi had done what he did.

To his relief, Eren had later loosened up and gotten along with the members of his squad; Petra, Gunther, Eld, and Aluo.

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*__*_*_*_*

At first, Eren had trouble cleaning up to Levi’s standards - which mostly everyone struggled with - but he had gotten better as the days went by.

He had been training and doing experiments with Hanji everyday to get better at controlling his titan - And he had gotten better throughout the years, with newly found crystallizing abilities and the coordinate.

Levi was sure Eren had been tired, but Eren was adamant on training with his squad and  
doing his daily duties as well.

The determination and fire in his eyes as he vowed to take down every titan existing outside those walls was a force to be reckoned with.

His eyes as always, intrigued Levi.  
There were people with same colored dull eyes, and then there was Eren Jaeger with his huge mismatched eyes and the most beautiful colors in them.

They were breathtaking and unique.

Levi was sure he wasn’t the only one who had thought the same. Not with it being the topic of conversation in his squad during dinner most days before he accompanied Eren down to the basement to lock him up for the night.

————

Eren had been just another shitty brat he had to look after.  
Although a particularly well behaved one.

Eren had worked to impress, he was sure that the kid had some fucked up hero worship towards him - he was glad that disappeared throughout the years.

Eren had worked diligently to clean to his standard whenever they stopped by a base outside the walls - which he appreciated, but Eren is never getting more than a ‘good job’ from him.

Eren however, had still managed to get in daily fights with the Kirstein kid. It had been bad at first, with either of them bleeding from the punches and spraining bones so badly that Levi had to step in and smack the both them hard on the head, already being done with their bullshit.

But lately it had been playful banter with a couple of shoves and a random ‘horse face’ ‘titan crap’ here and there.  
Levi figured that it was their type of companionship.

————

Eren had accompanied him throughout the years, when his then squad had been killed by the female titan, during the retake of wall Maria, when Erwin had died, when he found out the truth behind his ancestors and his relation to Mikasa Ackerman, at the notorious basement where they had found out the truth behind their fucked up world and on their first visit to the ocean.

Eren was no longer the foolish fifteen year old teenager he met five years ago.

He had grown up and changed- hair longer, more muscle and much more mature.

Although Levi was somehow glad that he still had his carefree lively personality and smile that could brighten the dull atmosphere of any room, rivaling the sun itself.

They had grown closer, somewhat of friends even though Levi was nine years his senior.

Levi had thought it was inevitable, with the two of them being a constant in each other’s lives for the past few years.

He had known he cared about the younger.

It had been during the battle with Kenny Ackerman, when Eren and Historia had been kidnapped that Levi realized, much to his amusement and chagrin that he cared about the shitty brat with bright eyes a little more than the others.

He had brushed it off then, thinking the idea absurd.

But it had been when he first saw the ocean, the never ending swirling aquamarines, the sun up above glistening the water. Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Hanji and the others playing around in the shallow water with the ends of their pants ridden up to the knee while he had waited back on the sand.

Levi had thought the view of the ocean was far inferior to that of Eren’s.

It had been when Eren had turned towards him, when he had met Levi’s eyes and grinned breathtakingly at him, pearly whites on display, eyes crinkled at the side as the sun cast a soft glow on his skin, hair and eyes making them flash with flakes of gold that Levi realized.

_He wanted Eren._

Wanted to reach out towards Eren, run his fingers through his soft, brown locks as he cupped his face and put his own on those sinfully tempting pink lips.

_In that moment he had wanted to kiss Eren._

_Keep him to himself, by his side forever._

The realization had dawned upon Levi like he’d been harshly slammed against a wall.

His eyes had widened dramatically before quickly averting themselves to anything but Eren, despite him trying to keep a stoic face.  
His heart already beating frantically in his chest, had picked up pace as he had felt his legs go weak.

_He had been in love with Eren Jaeger._

————————

Ever since his time in the underground, Levi had known his preference leant a little bit towards the male population.

But that hadn’t stopped the immense shock his body went through at the sudden epiphany that he was taken with his subordinate. With Eren.

Levi did not know the events leading up to this moment.

Maybe it had been the way Eren tried to comfort him whenever they lost someone close - though Levi had a suspicion that it had been more for himself than Levi.

The way he tugs at Levi’s sleeve from behind and hugs him, arms tightly wrapped around his torso before he could turn around.  
Then continue on with the day as if nothing ever happened.  
It had been his way of preventing getting his ass beat by Levi.  
Even though Levi never had the heart to reprimand him for it - only clicking his tongue with a mutter of ‘shitty brat’ after Eren had left and letting him off like many times before.

Maybe it had been how Eren roped Levi into spilling his guts to him late night at his quarters although Levi was far from an emotional person.

How Eren had shown Levi the deepest, darkest most broken parts of himself, all bare and vulnerable.

How much Eren had trusted Levi.

They had fallen asleep in Levi’s bed that night in the midst of talk.  
Levi had later woken up to bright sunlight seeping into his room through the window, and tangled limbs with the messy bed hair and face of a certain brunette against his chest. 

Neither men had spoken a word of the incident after.

It had been Eren’s way of comforting him after the tragic death of Erwin.  
Levi hadn’t needed it. He had long since gotten used to death around him.

But he had still found himself in a more uplifting mood after.

Maybe it had been how Eren sometimes accompanied Levi through the late nights in the kitchen, nursing his black tea after the elder had found it difficult to fall asleep.

Sometimes making small talk or enjoying the other’s presence and just existing beside each other as they stared out into the night.

Maybe it had been the way Eren always looks for Levi’s reassurance.

Looks at him for a promise of safety whenever Hanji decides to drag him into another one of her crazy experiments - though Levi would never admit it, he had found the little gesture quite endearing.

Maybe it had been all the small things throughout the years that made him fall for Eren.

Or maybe it had been because Eren was just Eren, and that had been enough for the raven haired man to fall for him.

————————

Losing people he cared about had become a normal occurrence to Levi.

It had been his mother first. She had struggled to make a living to support the both of them. It was hard to make ends meet as a prostitute in the underground.

Not long after, she had gotten sick and passed away on her sick bed, leaving young Levi to watch as his mother’s body wasted away.

The underground was a ruthless and vile place filled with crimes and evil beyond the understanding of the wealthy who lived on the surface.

It had been his uncle Kenny Ackerman who had taken him under his wing and taught him to survive in that hell hole.

But Kenny had soon left Levi to fend for himself.  
He had later met Furlan Church and Isabel Magnolia, his two best friends and newfound family.

They had been a team, sticking with each other through thick and thin.

It was later that Erwin made a deal with them to join the Survey Corps, and them wanting to experience the surface world, had agreed.

There was no such thing as a happy ending in this cruel world that they existed in.

He had lost the two people he cared about to the jaws of a titan.

It was then, that he decided to follow Erwin and dedicate his life to killing titans.

He had closed off and prevented himself from getting attached to anyone.

Human life was fleeting.

Eren Jaeger however, had managed to catch him off guard.

Despite it not being too long after he had realized his feelings, Levi knew that if anything happened to Eren, he would lose his mind.

It was still his responsibility to get rid of Eren if he posed a threat - Levi doubted that would ever happen.

And although Humanity’s strongest and the titan shifter had the highest chance of survival, there was still a high possibility for either of them to die on the battlefield.

There was no specific rule against relationships between superiors and their subordinates, but it was still looked down upon.

Though Levi couldn’t bring himself to care about what others thought.

It was clear as day to anyone who watched that Eren cared about Levi a lot. But it was still a bit far fetched to assume that he had returned Levi’s feelings.

Levi would never act on his feelings for Eren.

He couldn’t afford himself to.

They would come in between their fight for the people of paradis island.

He had decided to stay on the sidelines and protect Eren, just as he did before.

Although that would be easier said than done.


End file.
